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’Tis the Season: One department’s quest to reduce cooking fires
’Tis the Season: One department’s quest to reduce cooking fires
By David L. Adams, R.A. CFO, CBO
If your department is like most, you respond to a lot of cooking fires, and the number of calls for them goes way up during the holidays. According to the NFPA, firefighters encounter three times as many cooking fires on Thanksgiving than on an average day—and cooking equipment fires are the leading cause of U.S. home fires and fire injuries, and the third leading cause of fire deaths.
Although we must be prepared to respond to the higher call volume for these incidents during the holidays, we also need to ask ourselves, what preventive measures can we take to reduce the number of cooking fires throughout the year? With the help of a grant and some new technology, my department is hoping to do just that.
Quick Facts:
Sandy Springs (Ga.) Fire Department
The Sandy Springs Fire Department’s service area includes a residential population of approximately 98,000 and a daytime population that has been estimated to swell to 125,000. The department has 91 full-time firefighters to respond to an average annual call volume of 7,000. Compounding matters, the department has 43,000 housing units (92% are occupied and 59% are multi-family dwellings) with a median value of $316,000 within its densely populated boundary. The service area also includes some of the most desirable commercial corporate high-rise buildings (e.g., UPS Corporate, Newell Rubbermaid, Cox Enterprises) in the nation.
Project STOP
The Sandy Springs (Ga.) Fire Department response area includes 73 apartment complexes and a total of 43,000 housing units (92% are occupied and 59% are multi-family dwellings). An informal assessment using data from fire incident reports, along with the observations of fire service personnel, revealed that cooking fires are a large problem within the community (see sidebar photos for some specific incidents).
Our assessment also indicated that a large percentage of these fires occur in apartment buildings and among vulnerable populations (defined as seniors above the age of 65 and “latchkey” children who range from ages 12 to 16 and are likely to cook alone while their parents or primary care person are working). Accordingly, our department has implemented a strategy of education and technology that is focused on one of our greatest target hazards: rental apartments.
On Aug. 7, 2009, our city received a $38,000 federal grant to launch a program to address this issue specifically and fire safety more broadly. The grant help started Project STOP, which educates at-risk seniors and young children on reducing the occurrence of cooking fires and the necessary action steps to take during a fire. The course was developed from a teaching outline developed by FEMA and NFPA.
Project STOP includes two main elements:
1. Promote fire prevention and safety through targeted education presentations for seniors and children, given that they reside in apartment complexes prone to cooking fires.
2. Install safety equipment during the site visits.
Combined, these two strategies will go a long way in protecting the community against potential deaths, injuries and property damage, not to mention mitigating the risks faced by seniors and “latchkey” children.
Prevention through Technology
The safety equipment installed as part of Project STOP includes two new technologies developed to address unattended cooking fires (NFPA estimates 90% of cooking fires result from food left unattended):
· Stove Top FireStop is a 12-oz. automatic fire extinguisher that attaches magnetically under the vent hood over a stovetop. When a stovetop fire occurs and the flame reaches the Stove Top Fire Stop, the fire suppressing powder is automatically released onto the fire.
· Safe-T-Element is a technology that prevents common combustibles from igniting and burning on the stovetop. An electric element on a typical electric range will heat to about 1,300–1,600 degrees F; common combustibles generally ignite and burn at about 700 degrees F. A temperature-control device that prevents the element from reaching these temperatures eliminates all stovetop fires, including cooking oil fires.
Recent multiple-loss tragedies due to unattended cooking in Charlotte and Atlanta remind us that stovetop cooking fires represent the largest cause of home fires. NFIRS data states that cooking fires were responsible for about 80 deaths, 3,875 injuries and $481 million in property loss in the United States in 2002. Project STOP will provide high-risk target groups with proven and effective prevention messages and safety equipment to mitigate the risk and occurrence of cooking fires.
The holidays provide an opportunity to educate the public about the dangers associated with cooking fires. But programs like Project STOP ensure that the education continues year-round, and the latest technology is deployed to further protect those most at-risk.
David L. Adams, RA, CBO, CFO, is the fire protection engineer with the Sandy Springs Fire Department. Feel free to contact David at 770/206-2083 or david.adams@sandyspringsga.org.
By David L. Adams, R.A. CFO, CBO
If your department is like most, you respond to a lot of cooking fires, and the number of calls for them goes way up during the holidays. According to the NFPA, firefighters encounter three times as many cooking fires on Thanksgiving than on an average day—and cooking equipment fires are the leading cause of U.S. home fires and fire injuries, and the third leading cause of fire deaths.
Although we must be prepared to respond to the higher call volume for these incidents during the holidays, we also need to ask ourselves, what preventive measures can we take to reduce the number of cooking fires throughout the year? With the help of a grant and some new technology, my department is hoping to do just that.
Quick Facts:
Sandy Springs (Ga.) Fire Department
The Sandy Springs Fire Department’s service area includes a residential population of approximately 98,000 and a daytime population that has been estimated to swell to 125,000. The department has 91 full-time firefighters to respond to an average annual call volume of 7,000. Compounding matters, the department has 43,000 housing units (92% are occupied and 59% are multi-family dwellings) with a median value of $316,000 within its densely populated boundary. The service area also includes some of the most desirable commercial corporate high-rise buildings (e.g., UPS Corporate, Newell Rubbermaid, Cox Enterprises) in the nation.
The Sandy Springs (Ga.) Fire Department response area includes 73 apartment complexes and a total of 43,000 housing units (92% are occupied and 59% are multi-family dwellings). An informal assessment using data from fire incident reports, along with the observations of fire service personnel, revealed that cooking fires are a large problem within the community (see sidebar photos for some specific incidents).
Our assessment also indicated that a large percentage of these fires occur in apartment buildings and among vulnerable populations (defined as seniors above the age of 65 and “latchkey” children who range from ages 12 to 16 and are likely to cook alone while their parents or primary care person are working). Accordingly, our department has implemented a strategy of education and technology that is focused on one of our greatest target hazards: rental apartments.
On Aug. 7, 2009, our city received a $38,000 federal grant to launch a program to address this issue specifically and fire safety more broadly. The grant help started Project STOP, which educates at-risk seniors and young children on reducing the occurrence of cooking fires and the necessary action steps to take during a fire. The course was developed from a teaching outline developed by FEMA and NFPA.
Project STOP includes two main elements:
1. Promote fire prevention and safety through targeted education presentations for seniors and children, given that they reside in apartment complexes prone to cooking fires.
2. Install safety equipment during the site visits.
Combined, these two strategies will go a long way in protecting the community against potential deaths, injuries and property damage, not to mention mitigating the risks faced by seniors and “latchkey” children.
Prevention through Technology
The safety equipment installed as part of Project STOP includes two new technologies developed to address unattended cooking fires (NFPA estimates 90% of cooking fires result from food left unattended):
· Stove Top FireStop is a 12-oz. automatic fire extinguisher that attaches magnetically under the vent hood over a stovetop. When a stovetop fire occurs and the flame reaches the Stove Top Fire Stop, the fire suppressing powder is automatically released onto the fire.
· Safe-T-Element is a technology that prevents common combustibles from igniting and burning on the stovetop. An electric element on a typical electric range will heat to about 1,300–1,600 degrees F; common combustibles generally ignite and burn at about 700 degrees F. A temperature-control device that prevents the element from reaching these temperatures eliminates all stovetop fires, including cooking oil fires.
Recent multiple-loss tragedies due to unattended cooking in Charlotte and Atlanta remind us that stovetop cooking fires represent the largest cause of home fires. NFIRS data states that cooking fires were responsible for about 80 deaths, 3,875 injuries and $481 million in property loss in the United States in 2002. Project STOP will provide high-risk target groups with proven and effective prevention messages and safety equipment to mitigate the risk and occurrence of cooking fires.
The holidays provide an opportunity to educate the public about the dangers associated with cooking fires. But programs like Project STOP ensure that the education continues year-round, and the latest technology is deployed to further protect those most at-risk.
David L. Adams, RA, CBO, CFO, is the fire protection engineer with the Sandy Springs Fire Department. Feel free to contact David at 770/206-2083 or david.adams@sandyspringsga.org.
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